Creating Assessments and Rubrics

The Assessment Problem

Here’s a scene that plays out in teacher workrooms everywhere: it’s Sunday afternoon, you need to create a unit test for Monday, and you’re staring at a blank document. You know the standards. You know what you taught. But crafting 30 questions that actually measure understanding—not just recall—takes hours.

Then there’s the rubric. You need one for Thursday’s essay. You want it to be specific enough to grade consistently but clear enough for students to use as a roadmap. Another hour, minimum.

AI doesn’t just speed this up. It can actually improve the quality of your assessments by ensuring alignment, varying Bloom’s levels, and creating diagnostic distractors. Let’s see how.

Multiple Choice Questions That Actually Assess

Most multiple choice questions test recall. AI can help you go deeper.

The Bloom’s-Aligned Question Prompt

Create [number] multiple choice questions:

SUBJECT: [Subject]
GRADE: [Grade level]
TOPIC: [Specific topic]
STANDARD: [Learning standard]

Generate questions at these Bloom's levels:
- 3 questions at REMEMBER/UNDERSTAND level
- 3 questions at APPLY/ANALYZE level
- 2 questions at EVALUATE/CREATE level

For each question:
- Write 4 answer choices (A, B, C, D)
- Make distractors reflect common misconceptions
- Note which misconception each distractor addresses
- Include the correct answer with a brief explanation

Example Output (6th Grade Math — Ratios)

Remember level: What is the ratio of 15 to 5 expressed in simplest form?

• A) 15:5
• B) 5:1
• C) 3:1 (correct)
• D) 1:3

Distractor analysis: A = doesn’t simplify. B = inverts incorrectly. D = reverses the order.

Analyze level: A recipe calls for 2 cups of flour for every 3 cups of sugar. If you use 9 cups of sugar, how many cups of flour do you need?

• A) 4.5 cups
• B) 6 cups (correct)
• C) 13.5 cups
• D) 12 cups

Distractor analysis: A = divides instead of multiplying. C = multiplies sugar by original flour ratio. D = multiplies both by the same number.

Notice how each wrong answer reveals a specific misconception. That’s assessment gold.

Short Answer and Essay Prompts

For deeper assessment, AI can generate prompts at varying complexity levels:

Create 5 short-answer/essay prompts for:

TOPIC: [Topic]
GRADE: [Grade level]
STANDARD: [Standard]

Include:
- 2 prompts requiring EXPLANATION (students explain a concept)
- 2 prompts requiring APPLICATION (students use knowledge in a new context)
- 1 prompt requiring EVALUATION (students make and defend a judgment)

For each, provide:
- The prompt itself
- What a proficient response includes
- Common weaknesses to watch for
- A model answer at the "proficient" level

Quick check: Think about your next assessment. Are most of your questions at the Remember/Understand level? If so, you’re not alone—most teacher-made tests skew toward recall. AI makes it easier to push higher.

Building Rubrics That Work

A good rubric does three things: guides student work, speeds up grading, and ensures consistency. Here’s how to generate them:

The Universal Rubric Prompt

Create a rubric for:

ASSIGNMENT: [Description of the assignment]
GRADE LEVEL: [Grade]
STANDARD: [Learning standard being assessed]

Rubric specifications:
- [3 or 4] performance levels
- [4-6] criteria/dimensions
- Use DESCRIPTIVE language (what the student work looks like)
  not EVALUATIVE language (good, fair, poor)
- Include student-friendly language
- Weight criteria if some are more important

Format as a table with:
- Criteria in rows
- Performance levels in columns
- Specific, observable descriptions in each cell

Example: Persuasive Essay Rubric (9th Grade)

Create a 4-level rubric for a 9th-grade persuasive essay:

ASSIGNMENT: Write a 5-paragraph persuasive essay arguing
for or against school uniform policies
STANDARD: W.9-10.1 (Write arguments to support claims
with valid reasoning and relevant evidence)

Criteria:
1. Claim and position (Is the argument clear and debatable?)
2. Evidence and reasoning (Does evidence support the claim?)
3. Counterargument (Does the essay address opposing views?)
4. Organization (Is the structure logical and effective?)
5. Language and conventions (Is writing clear with few errors?)

Performance levels: Exceeds (4), Meets (3), Approaching (2), Beginning (1)

AI produces something like:

And so on for each criterion. The descriptive language means both you and the student know exactly what “Meets” looks like.

Formative Assessment: Quick Checks

Not every assessment needs to be a major production. AI excels at generating quick formative checks:

Exit Tickets

Create 3 exit ticket questions for today's lesson:

TOPIC: [What you taught today]
GRADE: [Grade level]
OBJECTIVE: [What students should have learned]

Make them:
- Answerable in 2-3 minutes
- One recall, one application, one self-reflection
- Include what a successful response looks like

Think-Pair-Share Prompts

Generate 5 discussion prompts for think-pair-share:

TOPIC: [Topic]
LEVEL: [Grade]

Mix:
- Factual questions (to verify understanding)
- Analytical questions (to deepen thinking)
- Connection questions (to link to prior knowledge or real world)

Quick Quizzes

Create a 5-question formative quiz:

TOPIC: [Topic covered this week]
GRADE: [Grade]
FORMAT: Mix of multiple choice (3) and short answer (2)
TIME: Students should complete in 5-7 minutes
PURPOSE: Identify who needs re-teaching before the unit test

Aligning Assessments to Learning Targets

The most common assessment problem isn’t question quality—it’s alignment. Your test should assess exactly what you taught and what your objective stated.

Use AI to check alignment:

Review this assessment for alignment:

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
1. [Objective 1]
2. [Objective 2]
3. [Objective 3]

ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS:
[Paste your questions]

For each question, identify:
- Which objective it assesses
- What Bloom's level it targets
- Whether it's a valid measure of that objective

Flag any objectives NOT assessed and any questions
NOT aligned to an objective.

This analysis catches gaps you might miss—especially when you’re writing at 10 PM.

Creating Answer Keys and Scoring Guides

AI can generate detailed answer keys that save grading time:

Create a scoring guide for this assessment:
[Paste your test]

For each question, provide:
- Correct answer
- Point value
- Partial credit criteria (where applicable)
- Common errors and how to address them
- What this error suggests about student understanding

Exercise: Build an Assessment Package

For an upcoming unit:

1. Generate 15 multiple choice questions across Bloom’s levels
2. Create 3 short-answer/essay prompts
3. Build a rubric for the essay prompt
4. Create 3 exit tickets for the unit’s key lessons
5. Run an alignment check between your objectives and questions
6. Time yourself—compare to your usual assessment creation time

Key Takeaways

• Always specify Bloom’s Taxonomy levels when generating assessment questions
• Diagnostic distractors in multiple choice questions reveal specific misconceptions
• Rubrics should use descriptive language, not evaluative—describe what the work looks like
• Formative assessments (exit tickets, quick quizzes) are fast to generate and invaluable for instruction
• Always run an alignment check: every question should map to a learning objective
• AI-generated assessments still need teacher review for accuracy and appropriateness

Next: creating differentiated materials so every student can access your content.

Up next: In the next lesson, we’ll dive into Differentiated Instruction at Scale.